simple security

This blog (besides a host of other things) is hosted on a server that I own and manage. Now time and again, I see various script kiddies or even crackers attempting to gain their way into my box. Some of them will try to exploit windows IIS exploits (hey script kiddie.. if you do some OS fingerprinting, you'll know upfront that this is a linux box). Some crakers try and brute force username/password combinations. Some even dare to try to pretend to be 'root' user. Sheesh!

Normally, I do keep a pulse on the various aspects (security and otherwise) of my server, but ignore stupid script kiddie stuff. Since the past few weeks, a script kiddie (I'll write about script kiddies in one of my future posts) was almost trying to get into my system on a daily basis. I ignored him/her for a few days and then it got onto my nerves.

I found out that the guy was running a mail server on his/her box. I connected to the mail server on port 25 (SMTP) and poked around looking for a way to send a message to the box owner. Finally I left a nasty mail on the root@localhost asking him/her to stop mucking around with my system. That did the trick. No more attacks from that host atleast. That was my way of getting back at the script kiddie.